Elon Musk and Sam Altman spar on X after Apple files OpenAI lawsuit

Elon Musk and Sam Altman criticized each other in a new post on X, noting the billionaires’ long-running battle over the evolution of OpenAI.

Musk and Altman, along with a group of engineers and scientists, helped found OpenAI as a nonprofit artificial intelligence research laboratory in 2015.

Musk left OpenAI’s board in 2018 after donating tens of millions of dollars to the organization, but later challenged Altman’s efforts to create a “transparent network of for-profit OpenAI affiliates” in a lawsuit that went to court in California this year. The jury ruled in favor of Altman, and Musk said he would appeal the case.

Weeks later, Musk’s company SpaceX, which controls the X social platform, the OpenAI-challenging xAI lab, and the Starlink broadband internet service, completed its groundbreaking initial public offering. SpaceX has raised a record $75 billion in donations, supporting plans to launch data centers into space, as well as goals for enterprise AI applications and interplanetary transportation. OpenAI, meanwhile, has privately filed for its own IPO.

This week, SpaceX launched its Grok 4.5 generative AI model, while OpenAI released its own GPT-5.6 Sol. For days, Musk and Altman have been hyping their respective broadcasts, but on Saturday the rivalry got personal.

In response to a post about Apple Musk sued OpenAI on Friday, alleging theft of trade secrets wrote“Scam Altman strikes again…”

Tesla’s and the SpaceX CEO used the moniker “Scam Altman” to refer to the OpenAI CEO multiple times last year. Musk, minutes after his post doubled“It takes fraud to a whole new level.” he writes.

Next, Musk posted a photo “I do this because I love it,” Altman was quoted as saying.

“By ‘this’ he means fraud,” Musk wrote, including two laughing emojis rolling on the ground.

Then Musk replied she captioned the post: “He may love fraud more than any living person!”

The flurry of social activity caught Altman’s attention.

“[H]“Omeboy, you are the one selling short-term space data centers to public market investors,” Altman wrote in one post. x post His own song which has garnered over 11 million views.

“We’ll start flying them next year. If your parole officer approves, maybe you can come and see them,” Musk said. responded.

Additionally, Altman put Musk’s new wave of interest in the context of OpenAI’s new model release.

“[T]”There are many criteria that suggest the 5.6 sol is the best model in the world right now, but the surest way to tell is that Elon is obsessed with me again,” Altman wrote. in x.

account elsewhere in X @iliketeslas He claimed that Altman was afraid of Apple. This prompted Altman to offer a response.

“[I] I’m not afraid of Apple, but I have great respect for them. s-tier company,” Altman wrote.

Altman’s post led X’s chief product officer, Nikita Bier, to conclude: answer: “Also incredible trade secrets, some of the best.”

Musk replied with a face emoji filled with tears of joy.

On Friday, an OpenAI spokesperson told CNBC: “We are not interested in trade secrets of other companies.”

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